BEIJING — China's service outsourcing industry posted steady expansion during the first 11 months of this year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

Chinese firms inked service outsourcing contracts worth about 1.56 trillion yuan (about $245 billion) from January to November, up 20.2 percent year-on-year.

The executed contract value stood at 1.1 trillion yuan during the period, a year-on-year rise of 19.4 percent.

Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services and make goods traditionally undertaken by the company's employees.

Of the total, offshore service outsourcing contract value rose 14.4 percent from a year ago to 876 billion yuan.

Service outsourcing with countries along the Belt and Road led the overall growth, with contracts valued at 169.1 billion yuan for the January-November period, up 28.2 percent from a year ago.

The industry added 870,000 jobs in the same period, up 1.6 percent year-on-year, according to the ministry.